A crowd proved to be in New York on February 19 to protest against the Trump administration cuts to funding research.Credit: Erik McGregor / Lightrocket / Getty
Annika Barber felt like an impostor as she got on a bus just before Sunrise on February 24, and settled for the long journey from New Jersey to Washington DC.
Barber had studied neuroscience For years before launching your own laboratory at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. She was not trained to become an activist, but now she was on the way to give a speech during a gathering on proposed Cups in the United States Research Funding. When she arrived in Washington, she picked up a virgin poster provided by the organizers of the rally. “I prefer to be in the laboratory!” She wrote on it in Big Block Letters.
In the United States, researchers are sailing on an uncomfortable territory. Repeated Threats to financing research And mass layoffs of federal workers have prompted some scientists to face Unknown roles as activistsTalking during gatherings, calling legislators and training new pressure groups. “Historically, scientists have done a very bad work of defense of their own activities,” said David Meyer, sociologist at the University of California in Irvine. “So it’s a new challenge.”
Unusual role
The events of the last six weeks have forced many scientists to take up this challenge. Shortly after the second inauguration of US President Donald Trump on January 20, the new administration tried to freeze payments on federal subsidies; announced that it would examine and potentially cancel Any subsidy which mentioned the conditions deemed indicative of diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI); And Issued from spectacular reductions to general costs, or “indirect costs”, paid on projects funded by the United States National Institutes of Health.
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“All bad news and chaos have made it difficult to know what was the best action to take,” said Melissa Varga, principal director of the scientific network at the union of scientists concerned at Washington DC. “People have just closed.” The fear of speech remuneration has also played a role, she adds.
The courts Temporarily interrupted some of the Trump administration ordersBut a coherent message has pierced: Federal support for science is in danger. Little by little, scientists have started to stir, Varga says: “They realize now that doing something is better than doing nothing.”
This activism takes many forms. On March 3, the Union of Scientists concerned and 48 liberated scientific societies A joint Congress letter Calling for legislators to protect research funded by taxpayers. “The actions of this administration have already caused significant damage to American science and risk the health and security of our communities,” they said.
American researchers in planetary science speak of creating a new professional company to strengthen their voice in political matters. Paul Byrne, planetary scientist of the University of Washington in St. Louis, Missouri, says that he has been thinking of such a society for several years. “But recent attacks, because this is what they are, on science in the United States has catalyzed the need,” he said. “The more the community of planetary science is organized, the more we can get up and bring us to justice against these actions.” Byrne and others will direct a discussion at a next planetary conference on the advisability of launching such a company.
Individual researchers also have a bonus of petitions to sign, including declarations against censure of scienceindirect cost reductions, and Space Science Cup And Biomedical research. And professional companies have disseminated tips to guide researchers who wish to call their elected representatives.
Act
For many scientists, the big event arrives on March 7, during the “stand up for science” gatherings which should take place in 32 cities across the country. The main event, in Washington DC, is led by a group of five researchers, most of them graduate studentswho met to fight his own initial feelings of helplessness. “It was inspiring, as it grew up, to see how many people felt the same thing and to take measures,” explains Emma Courtney, a student in biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.
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Another objective is that each rally to arouse local media to cover the impact of science on this community, explains Sam Goldstein, who studies the health of women at Florida University in Gainesville and also co-organizing the Washington rally. Goldstein says that when she was interviewed by a journal of Maryland, she sought the main cause of death in the region, then prepared with examples of the way biomedical research could improve the quality of life.